9.0 General Discussion

[shoc]

Changing the game language to Swahili should provide a 0.5% DPS buff for no reason other than to watch the min-maxers suffer. That is all I want from Shadowlands.

[huth]

Changing the game language to Swahili should provide a 0.5% DPS buff for no reason other than to watch the min-maxers suffer. That is all I want from Shadowlands.

Changing it to Wingdings will increase throughput by 100%, but targets will be randomly chosen from all units in range.

[razorpax]

The problem with this line of thinking, and which is the crux of the argument is that DPS Sims do not really matter to the vast majority unless the difference is gargantuan.
Most players will struggle to get even close to optimal, and fewer still will be able to play at the level where what the Sims say is what you should do.

For bleeding edge players picking a covenant on the basis of DPS is a perfectly valid choice, but for the more casual players simply picking what you enjoy is likely a just as good, if not better means of increasing your DPS.

ok so with this i agree

now where we seem to disagree is when i say we should be able to stick to our covenant choice, for example if i like kyrian i should stay kyrian, but the abilities should be something we have a swappable choice over

i might prefer every single thing in that covenant over the vanthyr except for the ability for example
i might hate the venthyr aesthetics and story and even weekly event
now with so few players actually effected by the outcome of this since you said yourself some cutting edge will play optimal anyway and most casuals wont care...why shouldnt we change
if the difference in dps or in a situation with two different covenant abilities just based on the abilities (right now the gaps are not just something you see in a sim you can see them in actual play) then why not allow me, a kyrian loving player, to swap to the stronger and in some cases more enjoyable venthyr ability?

i get the argument about the soul binds being attached but ive already stated
1. ability per soul bind is locked to that specific covenants ability and it it just a stat bonus
2. the conduits attached to those abilities can be placed in any soul bind
this essentially means as say a WW monk i would have to ask myself "does the damage and aoe potential of fallen order outweigh the 10% extra mastery i get from weapons of order?" and then "is the conduit for the ability better or worse than the other conduits i have available?"

theres nothing deeper than that for the abilities and i know blizzard wants to "bring back rpg" with pretty much every change they have and use examples that are definitely not going to happen and even if those situations did appear then like you said it would only happen for the teeny tiny bare minimum of players. Timmy and Jimmy wanna swap abilities and sould binds for every single boss and trash pack??? Let them because why not? Players dont need protected from themselves like blizzard thinks. "you now cant trade items of a higher ilvl than what you have. This is to protect players from feeling pressured. You cant swap gear in m+ this is to keep players from feeling pressured. You now have a GCD attached to most abilities and some CDs because we dont want players to feel pressured." If ppl want to break themselves against the game then let them i mean theyve done it for over a decade and it was fine. Heck ppl like to bring up Wrath as the god among expansions but that had possibly the most grind in the game due to all the different raid lock outs.

honestly right now the system as far as i can see for swapping covenants wont be awful but its a heck of a grind just to want an ability i got to have while leveling.
I am a player that likes to optimize but i dont go overboard....having the option isnt a bad thing though.
Locking the ability doesnt suddenly make the covenant super meaningful and unlocking it doesnt make the covenant a meaningless choice and thinking that means thinking that nothing else they offer is worth a damn.

im waiting for the masses to get ahold of this system and see how it feels to have azerite powers and essences again but under a new name and with more restrictions.

- - - Updated - - -

Changing the game language to Swahili should provide a 0.5% DPS buff for no reason other than to watch the min-maxers suffer. That is all I want from Shadowlands.

in reality maybe 100 players would make that switch

- - - Updated - - -

Don't forget the more-often-than-not synced releases with WoW's main competitor, the next one which is due August 11, with a half-patch following late September/Early October which carries a lot of timesink content.

i think we narrowed the launch window

early october bois

[Blayze]

Changing it to Wingdings will increase throughput by 100%, but targets will be randomly chosen from all units in range.

It gives you a 1000% DPS buff, but every attack has a 0.001% chance to delete the accounts of everyone in your raid.

[Rathwell]

It gives you a 1000% DPS buff, but every attack has a 0.001% chance to delete the accounts of everyone in your raid.

And they'd then go on the forums and cry that Blizzard is "forcing them to delete accounts", rather than just... Not doing it.

[Sondrelk]

And they'd then go on the forums and cry that Blizzard is "forcing them to delete accounts", rather than just... Not doing it.

I can just see the meta now. Each world first raid would be composed of classes with extremely strong openers, and gameplay would consist of hoping the boss dies within the initial burst, and if you are lucky, being able to use the same account for the next boss.

[goldlock]

Changing the game language to Swahili should provide a 0.5% DPS buff for no reason other than to watch the min-maxers suffer. That is all I want from Shadowlands.

Can call it LFR's revenge mode.

I honestly don't get the hate against character customization. its always been ability that determined if pugs liked you or not.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

With the way these 3 talk of the Maw/Torghast and how long they've been there I don't think Anduin is going to come out the same as he was before. He's been there the longest so far and who knows when we find him. If/when we save when I feel like he's going to start going towards the Shadows/Void aspect of Priests.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Changing the game language to Swahili should provide a 0.5% DPS buff for no reason other than to watch the min-maxers suffer. That is all I want from Shadowlands.

Changing it to German should make the ingame text 5% longer and everything in the game slightly slower

(Because German has some long words lol)

[Dreen]

At which point does music get added to the beta usually? i know its mostly in the later stages but seeing how alpha has been going for a while and now beta is well in progress i feel like they shouldve started adding in more music by now?

[Sondrelk]

[video]

With the way these 3 talk of the Maw/Torghast and how long they've been there I don't think Anduin is going to come out the same as he was before. He's been there the longest so far and who knows when we find him. If/when we save when I feel like he's going to start going towards the Shadows/Void aspect of Priests.

Could make for an interesting counterpoint to Arthas when he shows up eventually. Or even Sylvanas. Though doing that would require Anduin to stay the paragon of good, which might undermine the foreshadowing.
Though then again, he could always move slightly further in the direction of using both Light and Shadow. Could make his arc about being the best king to all his people by understanding all sides or something.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

With the way these 3 talk of the Maw/Torghast and how long they've been there I don't think Anduin is going to come out the same as he was before. He's been there the longest so far and who knows when we find him. If/when we save when I feel like he's going to start going towards the Shadows/Void aspect of Priests.

He shouldn't turn dark after that. He should stay the core of who he is.

Arthas

At worst I think we'll see Death Knight Arthas(Pre Lich King or after he put the helm on), only thing I can see.

[Raetary]

He shouldn't turn dark after that. He should stay the core of who he is.

The Maw already took a toll on Baine, Jaina and Thrall.
They were barely in there for any significant amount of time.

Anduin, the youngest out of all them, is STILL in there and probably getting tormented by Sylvanas herself.

He definitely SHOULD change significantly after this.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The Maw already took a toll on Baine, Jaina and Thrall.
They were barely in there for any significant amount of time.

Anduin, the youngest out of all them, is STILL in there and probably getting tormented by Sylvanas herself.

He definitely SHOULD change significantly after this.

Not at the cost of turning everyone into Post Theramore Jaina, no thanks. We don't need a Blue Horde(I've said it several times)

[Raetary]

Not at the cost of turning everyone into Post Theramore Jaina, no thanks. We don't need a Blue Horde(I've said it several times)

Giving Anduin more characteristics other than "good boy in gold" is not "turning the alliance into blue horde"

[Cosmic Janitor]

Giving Anduin more characteristics other than "good boy in gold" is not "turning the alliance into blue horde"

Very clumsily lining up siege of stormwind is though, because that is the trajectory we are headed right now.

[Ariamis]

He shouldn't turn dark after that. He should stay the core of who he is.



At worst I think we'll see Death Knight Arthas(Pre Lich King or after he put the helm on), only thing I can see.

Agreed on Anduin; I think he should be damaged from the experience, hardening him as a leader, but he maintains the same gentile core - I’d like it to be his Lo’Gosh-esque arc, and the torment should redouble his resolve towards peace.

For Arthas - they need to avoid patronizing him and the fans. I’d dread a ‘young Arthas’ RotJ treatment.

It could be interesting to explore the consequences of Arthas and Ner’zul being intertwined; what that does to the soul(s), how the arbiter passes judgemen, etc. Same for the souls consumed by Frostmorne - how that impacted their ability to enter the shadowlands.

I don’t want to engage with him; I don’t think there’s a way to do that meaningfully. Using Torgast as a storytelling device, discovering a struggle between the two LK souls and never really finding out what happens to them, would be the best case scenario IMO.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

With the way these 3 talk of the Maw/Torghast and how long they've been there I don't think Anduin is going to come out the same as he was before. He's been there the longest so far and who knows when we find him. If/when we save when I feel like he's going to start going towards the Shadows/Void aspect of Priests.

Which would be such a cool plot if Blizz hadn't decided to rewrite Shadow Priest to be Old God Worshiper back in Legion. Instead this just feels like a "future raid boss" flag....

[Sondrelk]

Agreed on Anduin; I think he should be damaged from the experience, hardening him as a leader, but he maintains the same gentile core - I’d like it to be his Lo’Gosh-esque arc, and the torment should redouble his resolve towards peace.

For Arthas - they need to avoid patronizing him and the fans. I’d dread a ‘young Arthas’ RotJ treatment.

It could be interesting to explore the consequences of Arthas and Ner’zul being intertwined; what that does to the soul(s), how the arbiter passes judgemen, etc. Same for the souls consumed by Frostmorne - how that impacted their ability to enter the shadowlands.

Anduin already has all the character traits that he should, he certainly could do with a dark turn moment where he is tempted to take the easy route like Arthas once did, but there isnt anything he specifically needs to make his current arc work, he just needs more moments to actually be challenged properly, and not get easy outs like he has had so far.

His arc is basically trying to continue to be compassionate and stay true to his beliefs as a priest despite constant adversity. The problem with this arc is that he is constantly correct, and is generally written as a abit of a Mary Sue in that the only characters who oppose him and his ideals are clearly evil.
But on the whole his character arc does work when described, it just lacks that actual moment of him being challenged and maturing, the only moment we actually got was his questline/cinematic in Legion.

- - - Updated - - -

Which would be such a cool plot if Blizz hadn't decided to rewrite Shadow Priest to be Old God Worshiper back in Legion. Instead this just feels like a "future raid boss" flag....

Honestly I kinda hoped that we got a Siege of Stormwind raid with an Anduin boss where he has gone delusional because of the Light and has to be brought back to his senses. Seems like a far better character moment considering his current trajectory of never being challenged in his beliefs beyond physical adversity against morally bankrupt antagonists. (See Sylvanas)

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Anduin already has all the character traits that he should, he certainly could do with a dark turn moment where he is tempted to take the easy route like Arthas once did, but there isnt anything he specifically needs to make his current arc work, he just needs more moments to actually be challenged properly, and not get easy outs like he has had so far.

His arc is basically trying to continue to be compassionate and stay true to his beliefs as a priest despite constant adversity. The problem with this arc is that he is constantly correct, and is generally written as a abit of a Mary Sue in that the only characters who oppose him and his ideals are clearly evil.
But on the whole his character arc does work when described, it just lacks that actual moment of him being challenged and maturing, the only moment we actually got was his questline/cinematic in Legion.

- - - Updated - - -



Honestly I kinda hoped that we got a Siege of Stormwind raid with an Anduin boss where he has gone delusional because of the Light and has to be brought back to his senses. Seems like a far better character moment considering his current trajectory of never being challenged in his beliefs beyond physical adversity against morally bankrupt antagonists. (See Sylvanas)

Honestly part of Anduin's problem is actually the writing of everyone around him. The writing of everyone else is so opaquely set up for the Horde and Alliance to break down entirely, yet because the Devs can't seem to take that plunge they basically turned Anduin into this excuse to keep the Alliance united and seperate from the Horde.